Murmel Murmel, Edinburgh
Saying “murmel murmel” is like saying “rhubarb rhubarb”, which is what actors used to say when they had to create a background noise of people talking. In 1974, Dieter Roth published what he said was a stage play. It ran to 178 pages and it used only one word: murmel. Not surprisingly, everyone said that it was completely unstageable. Everyone except actor-director Herbert Fritsch, who thought it could be done. He promised to try but it was not until after Roth’s death that he got the opportunity – at Berlin’s Volksbühne Theatre, where it proved an immediate hit. Now Edinburgh gets the chance to experience a bizarre 80 minutes, orchestrated by an 11-strong ensemble.
King’s Theatre, Fri to 30 Aug
LG
Lanark: A Life In Three Acts, Edinburgh
David Greig’s adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1981 novel will run to almost four hours in Graham Eatough’s production, but it’s unlikely to drag. That’s largely due to Gray’s singular vision: he drew on reality and the fantastical to create a gripping world that is both familiar and strange, something that led Anthony Burgess to call him the first major Scottish novelist since Walter Scott. Gray’s dystopian story is set in a world that in many ways resembles Glasgow, but which features lost memories, a sort-of hospital where the patients are eaten, horrible diseases, political chaos and economic strife. It’s rich material and Greig and Eatough should be the duo to crack it.
Lyceum, Sun to 31 Aug
LG
People, Places And Things, London
The world of rehab offers plenty in the way of material for playwrights, and Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places And Things is no exception. It follows a girl, Emma, as she struggles to admit the truth about herself and find the path to recovery in a piece about addiction, treatment and self-awareness. She is played by rising star Denise Gough – an award-winner for Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under The Elms at the Lyric Hammersmith. Macmillan’s work includes Headlong’s much-praised version of George Orwell’s 1984 (this too is a Headlong collaboration with the National Theatre), which is running at the Playhouse Theatre, WC2, to 5 September.
National Theatre: Dorfman, SE1, Tue to 4 Nov
MC
Bristol festival of puppetry
Head to Bristol’s Redcliffe bascule bridge over the next two weeks and you may glimpse something startling: a window into a miniature world created by the Quay Brothers. The installation is just one of the pleasures at this year’s festival of puppetry, which spreads out across the city for the first time from the Tobacco Factory to venues including the Arnolfini and Watershed. Look out for the twisted antics of the Smoking Puppet Cabaret (Tobacco Factory Theatre Bar, Fri to 5 Sep) as puppetry’s seamy underbelly is exposed; check out movies created right before your eyes by Paper Cinema (Watershed, Thu & Fri); and enjoy the skill of UK puppet masters Pickled Image (Factory Theatre, Fri, pictured) and international companies including Germany’s brilliant Figurentheater Tübingen (Factory Theatre, 31 Aug to 1 Sep), who know how to pull the heart strings. lg
Various venues, Wed to 6 Sep
LG
Dancing At Lughnasa Letterkenny, Belfast
The first Lughnasa international Friel festival is a cross-border Irish celebration of the work of the great Brian Friel. This revival by Annabelle Comyn offers a chance to see his haunting memory play, inspired by the writer’s own childhood. Set in a crumbling farmhouse in Donegal in 1936, it focuses on the five Mundy sisters, who are facing up to an uncertain future. They cling to the security of the past, including their memories of a time when they once danced; a dance that was wild and transformative, in contrast to their now constrained lives. It’s a play with a big, beating heart and while it can turn sentimental in the wrong hands, it can also be an incredibly affecting and rich experience.
An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny, Sat & Sun; Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Wed to 27 Sep
LG
Absent, London
In the middle of the last century, the Duchess of Argyll was a socialite and object of tabloid fascination. In 1978, she checked into a London hotel to live, only to be eventually thrown out years later, having run out of friends and money. In Absent, the dreamthinkspeak company portrays Margaret of Argyll as a magnetic young girl of 18 as well as an old lady of 80. This promenade production takes its audience through a past, present and future in which her story and that of the hotel are intertwined. The winding basement of Shoreditch Town Hall is the venue for a journey mixing film, architectural installation and a haunting soundtrack. mc
Shoreditch Town Hall, EC1, Mon to 25 Oct
MC
